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During the workshop, the State teams were asked to identify a set of concrete patient safety-related "action steps" that they intend to pursue on their return home. Among the specific actions that the different teams suggested were the following:

Work with the State legislature to increase their understanding of the issues and challenges that need to be considered in developing a patient safety agenda for the State.

Expand coalition membership to include new stakeholders such as consumers, the media, legislators, etc.

Develop university curricula to include patient safety, conduct leadership training in workshops and conferences, and develop and implement public education programs.

Incorporate patient safety design principles into the Certificate of Need process and building code requirements and develop and implement architectural ratings and assessments.

Finding support and resources:

Conduct a readiness assessment of the State patient safety program, develop a checklist of possible areas of support, and create matches according to the state of readiness.

Establish partnerships and collaborations with Federal, national, and State patient safety organizations and coalitions to push the agenda forward.

Improve data collection, analysis and reporting:

Analyze existing databases for new information on ways to improve patient safety.

Standardize definitions.

Bring practitioners into the analysis to gain buy-in and improve credibility.

Enact reporting requirements that include root cause analysis.

Provide feedback to hospitals on their Patient Safety Indicator reports.

Build a culture of patient safety:

Engage hospital CEOs and physician leadership.

Involve consumers in the patient safety process.

Field and analyze survey instruments that measure providers' attitudes on patient safety and the safety climate.